In the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, South Korea, which had been a very successful economy, was forced to raise interest rates and cut government spending by the IMF. These measures caused great economic distress. Because Asian countries were not well represented in the IMF’s governance structure, Korea could not effectively appeal the decision. We argue that what Korea and neighboring countries learned from this experience was that they had to accumulate their own reserves to self-insure against future crises. This self-insurance in East Asia has allowed Korea to navigate the current crisis well. However, the trillions of dollars of foreign exchange reserves accumulated in Asia have contributed to the ‘global imbalances’ that have played an important role in causing the current crisis. We suggest three possible solutions: reform of IMF governance, increased liquidity through regional risk sharing and foreign exchange swaps, and the Chinese RMB as a reserve currency.